CuO added Pb0.92Sr0.06Ba0.02（Mg1/3Nb2/3 ）0.25（Ti0.53Zr0.47 ）0.75O3 ceramics sintered with Ag electrodes at 900 ℃ for multilayer piezoelectric actuator

CuO added Pb0.92Sr0.06Ba0.02（Mg1/3Nb2/3）0.25（Ti0.53Zr0.47）0.75O3 ceramics were studied to prepare high-quality multilayer piezoelectric actuators with pure Ag electrodes at 900 ℃. CuO addition not only reduced the sintering temperature significantly from 1260 ℃ to 900 ℃ but also improved the ceramic density to 7.742 g/cm3. The 0.7 wt.% CuO added ceramic sintered at 900 ℃ shows the remnant polarization （Pr） of 40 μC/cm2, 0.28% strain at 40 kV/cm, and the piezoelectric coefficient （d33） of 630 pC/N. This ceramic shows a strong relaxor characteristic with a Curie temperature of 200 ℃. Furthermore, the 0.7 wt.% CuO added ceramic and pure Ag electrodes were co-fired at 900 ℃ to prepare a high-quality multilayer piezoelectric actuator with a d33 of over 450 pC/N per ceramic layer.